MOVING!!!

Good Day to all Readers,

Although I am aware that this blog is only a few weeks old, I am moving to a new location and what I hope will be a better, more interesting and more diverse blog called The Fullness of Truth and located at: radosmiksa.blogspot.com. Please come and join me there and we should have an excellent time. (Please note that many of these posts will be moved to the new blog.)

Thank you,

RD Miksa

Koan #40: Papal Inspiration

It is a simple fact. If God could inspire the writing of words from certain individuals to be true and perfect in their teachings, then He could inspire the speaking of words from certain individuals to be true and perfect in their teachings. Thus the idea of papal inspiration and infallibility should be no great stretch of faith for any Believer. And even more so, it would be arguably desired by God to ensure the doctrinal unity of the Faith and the explication of God-given morals to changing and developing social conditions. Thus the idea of papal infallibility cannot be denied from the fact that it could not be done nor can it be denied from the fact that it would not be done, as its written parallel already has been done. Let no non-Catholic Believer, therefore, deny it for such reasons, and if they do, let them re-evaluate such a position immediately and honestly if they wish to stay true to Christian truth.

Koan #40: Criticizing the Crusades

It is often the case that many Unbelievers and Misunderstanders, in their quest to discredit the Faith in any manner possible, criticize the Crusades as an example of Christian injustice and evil. Yet while it is both possible and true to criticize the actions of individual Crusaders with such a claim—and as all men are fallen sinners, which Catholicism preaches and teaches, such evil individual actions are not only not unexpected, but inevitable—the Unbelievers and Misunderstanders cannot justifiably criticize the Crusades as a whole with such sweeping claims. For it takes only a moment of historical study to realize that the Crusades were waged primarily to defend Christendom, through a strategic counter-attack, from hundreds of years of Islamic military expansion, aggression and murder—which, it might be added, would continue for many hundreds of future years—making the Crusades both just and necessary. And thus, in the same manner as one might criticize the actions of individual Allied soldiers during the Second World War as evil, but cannot justifiably criticize the Second World War as a whole as such—which was also waged primarily to defend the Western World from Axis expansion, aggression and murder—so too can the Crusades, as a strategic defensive action, not be so easily claimed as evil by anyone with a modicum of historical and moral sense.

Koan #39: Ending Every Prayer

For a man’s own soul, what can be more important than prayer? Indeed, the Lord instructs the Faithful to pray and even to ask for those things that they desire from Him. And yet, it is with a certain modicum of disappointment that it must be noted that most Believers possess a unique ability to forget the most important part of any prayer: ...but Lord, Thy Will be Done. Truly, no prayer can be seen as faithful if such an ending—whether uttered in voice or attitude—is not wholly and fully and completely embraced, for from it, all of a Believer’s true desires show forth. And thus it cannot be disputed: a Believer’s prayer is no true prayer without this.

Koan #38: Deceit and the Church

It is a most remarkable phenomenon to listen and read those that are deeply virulent and hateful in their attacks against the Catholic faith and the Church that protects it. Indeed, it is remarkable precisely because the attacks used are so often full of conscious distortions, exaggerations, misunderstandings, distractions, misinformation, half-information, dishonest omissions and at times, out-right and blatant lies; all of which are proven to be verifiably false with just a slight amount of investigative acumen. Yet what this fact raises is an even more fascinating point. For why, if the Catholic faith and its Church are such an easy target to defeat—as its opponents claim—must these distortions, exaggerations and falsehoods be employed? Why, if the Church and its claims and its teachings require no strong effort to crush, cannot the simple, plain and honest truth be employed in the task of doing so? Why is the extra tool of dishonesty used by all, from Unbelievers to Believing Dissenters, if the bare, pure and unadorned truth should suffice to discredit the Church? Perhaps—and an unwilling and unwanted explanation it will be for many—it is because this naked truth does not suffice to defeat the Church and what it teaches. Perhaps it is because if the full truth was actually spoken, it would bring people to the Church rather than push them away from it. And perhaps it is because the truth clings more tightly to the Church, than to any of its opponents. Thus in sum, these facts, if nothing else, show much concerning the “truth” that the opponents of the Church use, but even more, these facts show much concerning the actual Truth surrounding the Church herself.

Koan #37: Inane Trivialities

It is truly a strange and distressing phenomenon, that Man will spend an inordinate amount of time—his most precious resource—discussing the most inane trivialities, but not even grant a moment of reflection for that which may affect Him eternally. Pray that one is not such a man!

Koan #36: Changing the World

It is the sign of a well-intentioned, but naive and unreflective mind, of those that state that they wish to “change the world.” For truly, “changing” the world is by no means a difficult thing, nor is it necessarily desired, as many evil men have indeed changed it. What is difficult, by contrast, is to change one‘s self—with God’s grace—both consciously and specifically from a proclivity towards evil to an intense revulsion towards it, thus striving for a moral perfection and holiness not often seen. And in doing this simple, yet certainly not easy thing, the world would be immeasurably changed in a manner both worthy and deserving of change.

Koan #35: The Self-Described Sceptic

A major problem with many self-claimed sceptics is that they tend only to be sceptical about the things that they wish to be sceptical about, which rarely includes themselves or their own beliefs, and which means, quite simply, that as opposed to actually being sceptical, they are just biased. Let no Believer therefore, be awed nor cower in the face of any man that calls himself a sceptic. For this trait of unconscious bias rather than real scepticism is more prevalent than not in any self-described sceptic, and until it is determined otherwise, such a suspicion should be the de facto position of the Believer towards any such sceptic. And let the sceptic who labels himself as such truly ask himself how far his scepticism reaches and whether it actually touches those things that he holds as desirable and wishful to him, for if not, then he bathes in an undeniable intellectual hypocrisy.